


Time

by HeLovedYou



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Comic Book Science, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25189528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeLovedYou/pseuds/HeLovedYou
Summary: When the water solidifies around him, Steve is left drifting and alone, clutching to the edges of sanity by the hands of an old pocket watch
Kudos: 3





	Time

**Author's Note:**

> TW in end notes

It’s an annoyance at first,

Incessant,

But it’s the only company he has,

So for a while he listens

And imagines

A thousand different ways this could be:

Him and the Commandos on a mission, keeping an eye on their watches, timing everything to the second. They had to.

Peggy and him in the strategy room, brainstorming together and not noticing the hour hand sneak towards twelve, again and again.

Bucky and him at school, eyes fixed on the clock as the second hand ticked towards their time of freedom.

His mother, setting his father’s old stopwatch after sliding a tray of cookies into the oven.

For a while he imagines all and every – any – other scenario he could be in.

For a while he’s okay.

He drifts in and out of various levels of consciousness and for a while it’s bearable, he can almost forget that he can’t move his arms or his legs, can’t clench his fingers into a fist, can’t even open his fucking eyes.

For a while, the constant ticking of a watch stuck somewhere in his suit is comforting.

He doesn’t fully understand how but then he’s not fully conscious either, he doesn’t think, so really it’s all just relative.

It’s comforting until it stops.

He doesn’t know how long it’s been, but the clock stuck somewhere in his suit has stopped so maybe that means he doesn’t want to know.

He’s never understood the phrase deafening silence until that point.

He hates it.

He wants to scream; he wants to kick his legs and thrash around and arch his back and _scream_.

He doesn’t.

He can’t.

He lays quietly on the broken floor of _the Valkyrie_ and tries not to think about time.

How much of it has passed.

He wonders how Peggy is.

If she’s moved on.

He hopes she has.

He continues to drift and at one point he could swear he hears the strained hopeful notes of _Star Spangled Man_. He must be going insane and he wants to scream again, let out everything that’s been building for God knows how long. But he can’t. He can’t because he’s trapped, been frozen in time.

He can’t scream so he cries.

He feels tears slide between his frozen eyelids and sit there, prevented from flowing freely by the ice that has stolen everything from him, even this small release.

He cries and cries and feels himself drift back to unconsciousness and prays he doesn’t wake up.

When he wakes next, it’s warm.

It’s warm and he can feel something soft under his head.

It’s warm and there’s a clock ticking in the background.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I have no idea how the watch would still be working either but um let’s just say that it has a cover and the cover mostly stopped water from getting in and Steve can hear it because Super Soldier™️
> 
> Thanks for reading :)
> 
> Kind of TW for suicidal thoughts - basically Steve falls unconscious in the ice and hopes he doesn’t wake up


End file.
